By BEN MOROGO

Baringo comes from the word ‘Mparingo’ meaning Lake. As a fresh water body, Lake Baringo is important to the communities in its basin as a source of water for domestic use and watering livestock consumption. Other important uses are income generation through tourism, biodiversity conservation and fishing.
Lake Baringo is,  a  few kilometers from  Lake Turkana,  to the northern of the Great Rift Valley  of Kenya, with a surface area of about 130 square kilometres (50 sq mi) and an elevation of about 970 metres (3,180 ft). The lake is fed by several rivers  like El Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel, and has no obvious outlet; the waters are assumed to seep through lake sediments into the faulted volcanic bedrock.

Lake Baringo is one of the two freshwater lakes in the Rift Valley in Kenya, the other being Lake Naivasha. It lies off the beaten track in a hot and dusty setting and over 470 species of birds have been recorded there, occasionally including migrating flamingos. Lake Baringo has resident hippos, crocodiles and fish eagles. For those with more specialized interests there are also Scops Owl, Barbets, Eagle Owls, African Hoopoe and rare species of bat are just a few of the interesting birds and mammals.

For more information contact the author  vial email; benswagg100@gmail.com